South Africa, World
While you were sleeping: 12 October 2017
D-Day for apartheid jail killing, SpaceX lands reused rocket, and Dutch police foil helicopter escape.
Thursday, 12 October 2017
“Heroes. Idols. They’re never who you think they are. Shorter. Nastier. Smellier. And when you finally meet them, there’s something that makes you want to choke the shit out of them.”
Paul Beatty
South Africa has been avidly watching one of the world’s strangest political campaigns ever to grip a democratic country. People have been
D-Day ruling for apartheid killing
The North Gauteng High Court will rule today on the 1971 death of Ahmed Timol. Timol died in police custody under immensely suspicious circumstances. The police in true apartheid form had claimed Timol had committed suicide. Today, the testimonies of pathologists, cross-examination of former Security Branch thugs who last saw Timol and a general analysis of the entire story could see a murder verdict.
SpaceX successfully re-uses rocket
Early on Thursday morning SpaceX successfully launched a re-used rocket and landed it again. The Falcon 9 rocket left Cape Canaveral carrying a satellite. Ten minutes after launch the first stage rocket detached from the payload and successfully landed on an Atlantic ocean platform. This is SpaceX’s 18th successful landing.
Rather sensitive data on the F-35 stealth fighter was stolen by a Chinese hacking tool. A defence subcontractor in Australia was hacked with the tool, having the world’s most expensive fighter aircraft’s data stolen along with that of the P-8 surveillance platform. Somewhere on the darknet, a hacker is about to become immensely wealthy selling said data to China and Russia.
Dutch police foil helicopter escape
In what could have come straight out of a movie script, Dutch police reported one man shot dead and several arrested trying to spring a prisoner from jail. The aforementioned gang had planned to hijack a helicopter and use it to free their friend from prison. The prisoner in question: a local mafia kingpin responsible for a virulent drug trade in the Netherlands. Controlling a drug market in Amsterdam may seem like an odd thing to be in jail for, let alone having someone hijack a helicopter to get you out.
IN NUMBERS
$9.80
The amount Ray Bradbury spent on a coin-operated typewriter drafting Fahrenheit 451.
FACTS OF THE DAY
Today in 1917 the First Battle of Passchendaele begins.
Weight loss, even surgical weight loss, can improve your memory.
FEATURED ARTICLES
Op-Ed: Mass shootings in SA and the US – why the killings will continue
BY PETER STOREY & ADELE KIRSTEN
Male politicians send a message that a culture of violence and dominance is acceptable
A column by MAKO MUZENDA
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